MUMBAI, January 25: Flight operations at both the international (Sahar) and domestic (Santacruz) terminals of the Mumbai airport are likely to be disrupted following a proposed day-long strike on February 2 by employees of the Authority of India (international airports division). The strike may also affect essential services like the Airport Airport Fire Service and other runway operations.The International Airports' Authority of India (IAAI) Workers' Union Mumbai's president Nitin Jadhav and branch secretary L S Dewarde said the union has resorted to this drastic step as the AAI management has ignored their longstanding demands like lifting the ban on recruitment, additional manpower, promotions and distribution of uniforms.
After the commissioning of the new domestic terminal (Terminal I-A) at Santacruz airport and the partial takeover of the unaccompanied baggage and new heavy cargo terminal, the authorities ignored the union's demand for new recruits in view of the increased workload, Jadhav pointed
out.
Recruitment had now become imperative before the commissioning of the Phase III of the Sahar International Passenger Terminal, as the workload is likely to increase ten-fold, he maintained. He said the authorities had also not distributed uniforms to the employees for the last two years. Even the demand to compensate the employees in lieu of uniforms for that period has been ignored. Not a single uniform has been distributed in the current year too, he said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
